Author: Clive Catton

Clive Catton MSc (Cyber Security)

Clive is the CISO at Octagon Technology Ltd with special responsibility for data privacy and cybersecurity. The world of business technology is constantly changing and to meet this challenge he recently graduated from Edinburgh Napier University with an MSc in Advanced Computer Security and Digital Forensics - this course is certified by the Nation Cyber Security Centre. His dissertation was on data privacy and classification in small businesses using Microsoft 365 for Business.

The degree is not the end of the studying – to keep current Clive spends some of his time at work simply reading and studying the latest technology trends and threats so our clients can benefit from this knowledge. This knowledge also shapes and supports the products and services Octagon delivers to clients.

To make full use of Clive’s Master’s degree in cybersecurity, Clive and Diana have a joint venture with an international research company to get access for our clients to up to date information, schemas, analytics, templates, actionable tools and guidance. Whatever the size of your organisation if you are not approaching IT, cybersecurity and information privacy in a way that supports and benefits you, they can help, from the boardroom to the shop floor.

Clive and Diana are also working on a project to provide flexible online cyber security training for businesses at CyberAwake - Train Your Team To Protect You Against Cyber Attacks. Clive is the cybersecurity consultant for the project.

Clive has a long running personal blog at Clive's Blog. Here he publishes articles about photography, walking, camping, technology, stuff he just likes and since January 1, 2012, he posts "a photo a day" on the blog.
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CISA adds several Windows vulnerabilities to the ” Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalogue”

software patches are essential cybersecurity

The US Government, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added several new Microsoft Windows, vulnerabilities to it’s database. These all need patches – so again it is a good time to check that your “auto-updating” is working or time to get an Octagon IT monitoring package and let experts monitor the …

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Bug bounties are a vendor’s shortcut to software vulnerabilities – UPDATED 26 April 2022

This post was first published on 19 April 2022 Following up on the article below, here is a real world example of bug bounties working to improve cybersecurity. The US Government’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) worked with a group of cyber security analysts, who uncovered 122 vulnerabilities in the …

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Zero-day security vulnerabilities exploited in 2021 – UPDATED 25 4 2022

Magnifying glass looking for a zero-day attack

This post was first made on 22 April 2022 I regularly write about the issues around the zero-day vulnerability and our Social Engineering and Email Cyber Security Training course aims to equip individuals and organisations to meet the challenge that the zero-day poses. Google’s Project Zero has reported on it’s …

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Anatomy of a phishing email attachment – this is why we are always running training

Social Engineering and Email Cyber Security Training

SANS Internet Storm Centre has a couple of blog posts looking at the mechanics of a Word document and a PDF both of which are malicious payloads in a phishing email. This is what you are up against! Analyzing a Phishing Word Document – SANS Internet Storm Centre Simple PDF …

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